From Forests to the Coast - Multidisciplinary Investigation of Human Adaptations at the Mini-athiliya Shell Midden, Sri Lanka

Roberts, Patrick; Stock, Jay T.; Kulatilake, Samanti; Boivin, Nicole; Petraglia, Michael D.; Deraniyagala, Siran; Perera, Nimal

doi:10.29173/anlk650

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 53 publications

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“…Bellan-bendi Palassa, Kuragala, Pallemalala, Mini-athiliya and Godavaya are among these sites identified as hunter-gatherer microlithic sites of the Early to Late Holocene (10,000-3000 years ago) (S.U. Deraniyagala, 1994;Eragama, 2022;Karunaratne et al, n.d.;Kennedy, 2000;Kulatilake et al, 2014;Roberts et al, 2022;Somadeva & Ranasinghe, 2006;Stock et al, 2022).…”

Section: Early Anatomically Modern Humans In Lankamentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence-Based Anthropological Exploration of Lanka's People

Kulatilake¹

2022

ANLK

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Sri Lanka’s rich palaeoanthropological and archaeological record as well as the present demographic aspects have much to offer in aiding our understanding of the island’s ancient past and recent population structure. Sri Lanka has yielded skeletal evidence for the earliest anatomically modern humans from South Asia indicating very early settlement of the region. Following early hunter-gatherer dispersals over 50,000 years ago, agricultural populations expanded to the region with historic settlements and urbanisation creating complex societies in the last three millennia. Through circum-Indian Ocean trade networks in historic times and colonial expansion in the last 500 years, population diversification has continued with groups of multiple genetic and ethno-linguistic backgrounds arriving and settling in the island. These early and later migrants share a gene pool that connects them to descendants of today, who form Sri Lanka’s multi-ethnic, multicultural, and multi-religious society. Using an anthropological perspective, this article investigates how complex societal and biological diversity would have developed over time in island Lanka. An appreciation of deep time, beyond historic records, helps us recognize that human evolution and diversification has been shaped over thousands of years, while an evidence-based, scientific approach is proposed to eliminate flawed ethnocentric interpretations.

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Section: Early Anatomically Modern Humans In Lankamentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence-Based Anthropological Exploration of Lanka's People

Kulatilake¹

2022

ANLK

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Shell Midden Archaeology: Current Trends and Future Directions

Rick

2023

J Archaeol Res

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Since the 19th century, the study of shell middens has played an important role in archaeological research. Shell midden and broader coastal archaeology have transformed our understanding of human relationships with aquatic habitats, demonstrating the importance of marine environments to human evolution and ecology, the colonization of islands and establishment of maritime trade networks, changing social and political dynamics, and a variety of other issues. During the past two decades, shell midden research has greatly increased, marking an exciting time for new discoveries and heightened collaboration with Indigenous communities. Several key research trends in shell midden archaeology during the past 10–15 years include research on site distribution and temporality, underwater archaeology, historical ecology, terraforming, landscape legacies, and community collaboration. These research trends demonstrate the ways in which shell midden archaeologists are shaping our understanding of the human past and environmental change around the world.

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Early Sri Lankan coastal site tracks technological change and estuarine resource exploitation over the last ca. 25,000 years

Amano,

Faulkner,

Wedage

et al. 2024

Sci Rep

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The island of Sri Lanka was part of the South Asian mainland for the majority of the past 115,000 years, and connected most recently during the Last Glacial Maximum via the now submerged Palk Strait. The degree to which rising sea levels shaped past human adaptations from the Pleistocene and into the mid to late Holocene in Sri Lanka has remained unclear, in part because the earliest reliable records of human occupation come from the island’s interior, where cave sites have revealed occupation of tropical forest ecosystems extending back to 48 thousand years (ka). The island’s earliest known open-air sites are all much younger in date, with ages beginning at 15 ka and extending across the Holocene. Here we report the earliest well-dated open-air coastal site in Sri Lanka, Pathirajawela, which records human occupation back to ca. 25,000 years ago. We show that humans at Pathirajawela consistently adapted to changing ecosystems linked to sea level transgression and coastal evolution from the Last Glacial Maximum into the Holocene. The presence of anthropogenic shell midden deposits at the site from ca. 4.8 ka, focused almost exclusively on a single taxon, indicates intensification of estuarine resource exploitation, as humans responded to opportunities presented by the formation of new coastal ecosystems.

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From Forests to the Coast - Multidisciplinary Investigation of Human Adaptations at the Mini-athiliya Shell Midden, Sri Lanka

Cited by 3 publications

References 53 publications

Evidence-Based Anthropological Exploration of Lanka's People

Evidence-Based Anthropological Exploration of Lanka's People

Shell Midden Archaeology: Current Trends and Future Directions

Early Sri Lankan coastal site tracks technological change and estuarine resource exploitation over the last ca. 25,000 years

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